DAY TRIP FROM VIENNA TO HALLSTATT + ORIGINAL LAKES & MOUNTAINS

Lakes & Mountains District “Salzkammergut”

We make our first stop at the colourful lakeside village Mondsee for a short coffee break and visit the “The Sound of Music” film wedding church. South from Mondsee and its lake we will pass Huttenstein Castle beside the Lake Krottensee, our next photo stop will be above W.A. Mozart’s mother’s birth place, the village St. Gilgen with breathtaking views over Lake Wolfgangsee. We will pass Bad Ischl known for healing cures and world famous for operettas, and the summer residence of the Emperor Franz Josef.

UNESCO World Heritage Site “Hallstatt”

We will get to the very heart of Salzkammergut, the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site Hallstatt and Lake Hallstättersee which is described by the committee as “Nature of extraordinary beauty added to scientific import”. Here besides the beauty of the village you can marvel at archaeological excavations, findings from the oldest salt mine of the world, the world’s biggest collection of sculls with elaborate paintings and much more. The sensational findings even gave an entire epoch and a culture its names: The “Hallstatt Period” and “Hallstatt Culture” are scientific names for the Early Iron Age.

Hallstatt: many guests have called it the most beautiful lakeside village in the world.

Hallstatt Salt Mine – the oldest salt mine in the world

Using the funicular train you are taken comfortably up the mountain, beside the top station is “Top of Hallstatt“ with the “Skywalk“ panorama platform giving you spectacular views over Hallstatt village and the lake. From there after a short walk you don the miners clothes and a mine train takes you along glistening rock faces into the mountain. By using slides (64m!) you access the deeper levels. Of course, you also can use the stairs, but you should not miss this chance of fun to slide down like miners. The slide is safer than the stairs. There is information and stories, and other points to see.
The oldest staircase in the world. A salt lake inside the mountain. A Time Spiral covering 7,000 years of mining and the history of the probably most important find: The Mann im Salz (man in the salt), the corpse of a man discovered in 1734 by miners, obviously well-preserved by the salt.